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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Borrus from Los Angeles, CA is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Borrus is requesting

Reading Relevant Books Creates Ready Readers

My students need 20 copies of the award-winning novel "Gabi, A Girl in Pieces" by Mexican-American writer Isabel Quintero.

  • $275 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Keep the momentum going! Make a donation to Ms. Borrus for her next project!

Help Ms. Borrus

Keep the momentum going! Make a donation to Ms. Borrus for her next project!

My Students

The students at my school are as enthusiastic and capable as students anywhere, but face many challenges to academic achievement. This is an area that can be very dangerous. Gangs are an ever-present reality. Crime and poverty are high; unemployment is high. Many students work after school and some take care of younger siblings. The teenagers in my English Language Development class face an additional hurdle: they have grown up in homes where English is rarely spoken.

As English learners, many have struggled for years to read and write at grade level, which has a negative impact on their achievement in all subject areas.

And sadly, very few read for pleasure because reading English has proven so challenging for them throughout their school careers. Until they reclassify as English proficient, they get supplemental instruction in my class in reading fluency and comprehension, writing and oral communication skills.

Our school, with a strong interdisciplinary and performing arts focus, is only seven years old and now has a 90% graduation rate, with many students accepted to four-year universities. I know how truly capable my ELD students are and want all of them to be among those college-bound.

My Project

While it is important for English Learners to be exposed to literature by writers of all ethnicities, it is also essential that they be given the opportunity to read books that immediately engage them by reflecting their own culture and life experiences.

My ELD students need to read books they enjoy and find relevant if they are to become lifelong readers.

In the novel "Gabi, A Girl in Pieces" the protagonist chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, her best friend's pregnancy, another friend's coming out, her father's fatal meth habit, the food she craves, and best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity and get through it all. I read my students the first six entries aloud. They all loved them and commented on how much they identified with Gabi.

This novel is totally relatable, and it is also an excellent tool for teaching characterization, theme, story structure, and the power of language and poetry to heal and inspire. In addition, Gabi is a fantastic role model. Witty, strong and fiercely independent, she refuses to be defined by her ethnicity, class, weight or lifestyle.

I would love my students to participate in literature circles using this novel!

Ms. Borrus Torres High School - Performing Arts Academy Grades 9-12

Equity Focus

This project directly supports students at a historically underfunded school. Learn more about our Equity Focus.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

More about Ms. Borrus

Los Angeles, CA View local requests

Nearly all students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

30 students impacted 7donors

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Gabi, a Girl in Pieces • Amazon Business $9.19 20 $183.80

Materials cost

$183.80

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $16.82

3rd party payment processing fee

$2.76

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$233.38

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$41.18

Total project goal

$274.56

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $274.56

7 Donors

-$273.15

Donations toward project cost

-$233.38

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$39.77

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$1.41

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Borrus and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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